Ben Jackson, a farmer from the NSW town of Guyra, felt helpless when his much-loved aunt died in Queensland and border closures meant he couldn’t attend her funeral.
“Losing someone in these times is pretty tricky,” Mr Jackson said.
“I sort of fel…
Ben Jackson, a farmer from the NSW town of Guyra, felt helpless when his much-loved aunt died in Queensland and border closures meant he couldn’t attend her funeral.
“Losing someone in these times is pretty tricky,” Mr Jackson said.
“I sort of felt a bit helpless, a bit stumped about how I could show my affection and love for my dear aunty Deb.”
He came up with a touching way to honour her by getting his flock of sheep to form the shape of a love heart on his farm.
The sheep art has struck a chord with Australians who have had to come to terms with saying goodbye from afar as the COVID-19 pandemic keeps families separated. Border closures due to outbreaks mean people in NSW, ACT and Victoria are generally locked out of all other jurisdictions. Tens of thousands of people have viewed his video on Twitter after it was first shared by Mr Jackson on his Instagram page on Tuesday.
The video was played at Deb Cowdery’s funeral alongside one of her favourite songs, Bridge Over Troubled Water. Mr Jackson creates his sheep art by grain feeding the animals in specific patterns and, as luck would have it, he had some ewes almost ready for lambing that needed extra feed.
“I thought, I’ll do a bit of sheep art for my aunty Deb,” he said.
It seemed a particularly fitting tribute because she had always loved visiting the farm and hearing what he was getting up to, including his latest sheep creations.“I just hope that when I did it, Debbie took one eye off from having a yarn with her loved ones up there and looked down and saw my heart for her,” he said.
When the video played at her funeral, a torrent of tears came streaming down his face.
Mr Jackson said the true difficulty of being separated from family by COVID-19 only hit home after his aunt’s death.
“You hear about people doing it tough and not being able to say cheerio to their loved ones and not being able to be there or have that type of connection that we’re used to,” Mr Jackson said.
“You think that’s tragic, but it can’t happen to me.
“I’m not a grief expert but certainly, I was completely and utterly unprepared for how it’s affected me, the family and others. Of course there are so many people who are doing it tough in Australia and the world.”
